GAM WRIT ERS

Feeling of midnight loneliness;

The springs next door,

Wincing from the couple's weight.

The empty thought of emptiness

Weighed heavy in my mind...

Down below the music breaks,

Down below the breasts heave,

Down below the mounds rise and

Fall, distant togetherness.

One pyjama leg rolled,

I Rolled down below; a finger

Flick and like Zeus

'Curse she was on me.

Before I could think,

I was falling. I smelt her

Rancid liquor breath as

She loved me for the night.

With mastery she undid

My innocence, the one

I had lone known, she left

Gasping for more as

My Purse lay empty

Beneath my table-lamp.

"More hours and sleep

Took its share of me. I

See the finger flick,

I remembered my purse, my

Unsure breakfast. She sped

Up the stairs from down below.

I closed my door, kept her

Out. I needed myself;

I Preferred the empty quietness.

Even the couple next door

Are worn, for I hear no more

The straining springs."

I awake to hear

The noises after each

Wee silence. Constantly the

Different loads make different

Sounds. Dirty bitch. But maybe

She has got a long queue.

I hurry back to sleep,

Praying for morning light

To speed me out for I

Was just a passer-by.

Nana Grey-Johnson

(Ndaanan, Vol. 5, Issue 1&2, March/September, 1976, p. 26)